The meta answer is a six-letter word. Do you need hints? In order of increasing hintiness: 1. There are six entries that all have the same clue, except the clues are all missing a word (replaced with ?). 2. You need to find the missing word. It is not the same word for all six clues. 3. The missing words are in the clues, specifically at the start of six different clues. After that there's just one more small step...
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This is a contest/meta puzzle. To submit your answer, first finish solving the grid (or reveal it if you get stuck or solved offline).
Leaderboard (updated hourly)
FrankieHeck solved almost 2 years ago
merlinnimue solved almost 2 years ago
Pair O Ducks solved almost 2 years ago
Darth solved almost 2 years ago
Hector solved almost 2 years ago
I K Snamhcok solved almost 2 years ago
Schmeel solved almost 2 years ago
Meg solved almost 2 years ago
boharr solved almost 2 years ago
ajk solved almost 2 years ago
minimuggle solved almost 2 years ago
markhr solved almost 2 years ago
Laura M solved almost 2 years ago
Abide solved almost 2 years ago
DrTom solved almost 2 years ago
Madhatter5 solved almost 2 years ago
JM solved almost 2 years ago
whimsy solved almost 2 years ago
woozy solved almost 2 years ago
Cindy Weatherman solved almost 2 years ago
Anita and Steve solved almost 2 years ago
Katiedid solved almost 2 years ago
Eric Porter solved almost 2 years ago
SJMcK solved almost 2 years ago
Philip Chow solved almost 2 years ago
Ergcat solved almost 2 years ago
Mikey G solved almost 2 years ago
MatthewL solved almost 2 years ago
david solved almost 2 years ago
JHSeeman solved almost 2 years ago
lbray53 solved almost 2 years ago
BarbaraK solved almost 2 years ago
Bird Lives solved almost 2 years ago
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heidi solved almost 2 years ago
BrennerTJ solved almost 2 years ago
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HeadinHome solved almost 2 years ago
DCBilly solved almost 2 years ago
rjy solved almost 2 years ago
TMart solved almost 2 years ago
Carolyn solved almost 2 years ago
BethA solved almost 2 years ago
Steve M solved almost 2 years ago
bhamren solved almost 2 years ago
Johnny Luau solved almost 2 years ago
CPJohnson solved almost 2 years ago
KayW solved almost 2 years ago
THC solved almost 2 years ago
Cindy Heisler solved almost 2 years ago
Mwoychick solved almost 2 years ago
Berto solved almost 2 years ago
Darrell solved almost 2 years ago
Wendy Walker solved almost 2 years ago
Mr Tex solved almost 2 years ago
Tom Wilson solved almost 2 years ago
Jaclyn solved almost 2 years ago
DebbieC solved almost 2 years ago
DrButtBeard solved almost 2 years ago
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OGuyDave solved almost 2 years ago
DIS solved almost 2 years ago
Jerry Miccolis solved almost 2 years ago
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Naptown Kid solved almost 2 years ago
SJ solved almost 2 years ago
Byron solved almost 2 years ago
Kulea solved about 1 year ago
Comments
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FrankieHeck 🤓12:13 · almost 2 years ago
Fun puzzle! I've been in a meta slump lately, so this was a nice start to the week.
merlinnimue 🤓10:42 · almost 2 years ago
Very nice puzzle, challenging but I just had to slowly and patiently follow your trail of bread... oh, I see what you did there
Very fun stuff, thanks! Brainstorming lead-ins eventually surfaced PICNIC BASKET, which rang a bell. Confess to being a little wobbly on the MOLD one, but figured it was an S.
same! picnic was the first one i got... then forbidden... and i couldn't find the slime one... backsolved it after tons of googling... fun puzzle thanks!!
markhr 🤓19:49 · almost 2 years ago
Fun challenge. Very smooth, though I had to back solve for the S.
Hope to see more like this.
Well that went well. You scared me with the Level 4 announcement since we have had a few toughies lately, but this is getting to be a common mechanism (though your was superbly instituted). I did get down a deep hole with the Airport abbr. clues. They stuck out because there were two and Airport LINE abbr. - since I have yet to go to the airport and not have a TSA line - and Airport BOARD abbr. - since I have sat and watched the board for the ARR and DEP planes - gave me fits. I caved and asked for a course correction and my corrector told me "Well two are wrong" which really could only have been those. Anyway, I got there in the end, nice tie in with the Title and answer.
One question, MOJO...how does that anagram to Jim Morrison?
lbray53 5s · almost 2 years ago
I think you need to use the whole title. MR MOJO RISIN
Well of COURSE you do...what a dolt I can be at times.
lbray53 5s · almost 2 years ago
Fun. My printer cut off the bottom of the pdf. I solved using the across clues. BUT, that meant I could not see Picnic location for clue 32A. I ended up back solving for MEADOW which reminded me that I was missing the three bottom clues.
whimsy 18:55 · almost 2 years ago
Grid was challenging because of some "cultural reference disparity." :-)
And meta was a challenge too, but I got there... after thinking there was going to be some sort of round robin thing going on --- FRUITBASKET, FRUITMOLD, WINNERBOARD. It may have been that considering BOARDLINE prepped my head for BORDERLINE, which was the one I saw first.
Whoa. Easy concept but subtle execution. Nice job.
Katiedid 🤓9:18 · almost 2 years ago
Fun!
I got Forbidden first, and then Slime, because they are one-word clues. None of the other one-word clues worked, so I had to go searching for the others.
HeadinHome 🤓11:03 · almost 2 years ago
Same.
Ergcat 16:16 · almost 2 years ago
Fun puzzle. Had to cut the bread a few different ways until the crumbs fell!
MatthewL 🤓10:31 · almost 2 years ago
Well that was a challenge. Took me quite a while (and encouragement from a friendly Muggle) to keep looking for words. "Picnic" finally showed me that they didn't have to be one-word clues. Thanks for the puzzle!
Bird Lives 4s · almost 2 years ago
I thought we could count on DrTom for some rye humor here. Oh well. I’ll just challah out congratulations to Dame Fox on a fine puzzle. Also to Pita Abide (I nearly focaccia, but then I remembered ya) for recruiting her to the MMM team. Makes me reluctant to construct another since she’s such a hardtack to follow.
HeadinHome 🤓11:03 · almost 2 years ago
Nice ones, Bird! I got a stack of coins here… can I get one pumpernickel?
Finally! Not sure why I found that so hard. I kept abandoning this method because there seemed to be so many alternate possibilities for some: END(line) from 33D, SHORT(line) from 29A and 38A, SOUP(line) from 68A. For a good while I actually had all the correct letters (once I saw that the right words were all first words of clues) but I had the letters in the themer order, so I didn’t see a word. (BURMSC??).
Alternate method I was hoping for at the beginning was to find an 8-letter synonym for each entry: e.g. maybe PROVIDER for BREADWINNER… and maybe those would be in box shapes around the grid, with a solution letter in the center. (Yes you can steal that great idea!
TMart 🤓4:59 · almost 2 years ago
Nicely done!
Carolyn 10s · almost 2 years ago
Thanks for the hints. I can't believe I didn't see it on my own. Very nice!
BethA 2s · almost 2 years ago
I had started down the right track after completing the grid and staring awhile yesterday, with paired words for WINNER and BASKET, but wasn’t feeling confident. Peeked at the hints today, so got the confidence to finish it off! Very nice! Thanks for the puzzle!
KayW 🤓9:29 · almost 2 years ago
Nudged out of the bag. Very nice!! Funny - I had one rabbit hole that was SO CLOSE. I saw s-LIME for fruit and c-HOPPER for basket in the clues, but abandoned that when I couldn't find any more.
Fun puzzle, thanks! I solved thanks to a group effort on the Tuesday Zoom call.
Jaclyn 11:36 · almost 2 years ago
Nice! I made it more difficult than it needed to be, as per usual. The first 2 I saw were "forbidden" and "slime" so I tried to constrain myself to only one-word clues.
Thanks, Emma!
Alternate method I was hoping for at the beginning was to find an 8-letter synonym for each entry: e.g. maybe PROVIDER for BREADWINNER… and maybe those would be in box shapes around the grid, with a solution letter in the center. (Yes you can steal that great idea!